Demchugdongrub

Demchugdongrub (8 February 1902-23 May 1966) was the head of state of Mengkukuo from July 1938 to August 1945, succeeding Yondonwangchung.

Biography
Demchugdongrub was born in Sonid Right Banner, Qing dynasty in 1902 to a family of Chahar Mongols. He was a member of the Mongol nobility, and he had become the leader of the Mongols of Inner Mongolia by 1935. He planned to establish an autonomous Mongol government in Inner Mongolia, and he courted the support of the Japanese Kwantung Army. From 1935 to 1936, the Imperial Japanese Army assisted Demchungdongrub in taking over Inner Mongolia, and he became the commander of the Mongol Military Government in February 1936. In June 1936, he declared that he was the leader of an independent Mongolia, and he formed an army trained and equipped by Japan. He warred with the northern Chinese warlord Yan Xishan to expand his state, and he became the head of state of the Japanese client state of Mengkukuo in July 1938, leading it until the August 1945 surrender of Japan. After the end of World War II, he lived in Beijing for four years under the supervision of the Kuomintang government, and he briefly established an independent Inner Mongolian government during the Chinese Civil War before being forced to flee to Mongolia during the Communist Party of China's takeover. He was deported to China by the Mongolian People's Republic, and he was imprisoned from 1949 until he was paroled in 1962. Demchugdongrub worked at an Inner Mongolian history musuem until his death in 1966.